The Film + Music + Interactive Happy Hour returns next Wednesday, April 25, at Spitfire in Belltown from 5-7pm. Guest speaker Beth Barrett, Director of Programming at Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF), will reveal what's behind the curtain at film festivals, and share what you should be doing to get your work noticed here and abroad. Beth will also talk about facts for films that do make it into national film festivals, and provide examples of films that don't. And if that isn't enough, at the strike of 7pm Beth will announce the local film line up for the 2012 SIFF Northwest Connections program! See you on April 25.

Visit the UW's Seattle campus Thursday, April 19, through Saturday, April 21, for three days of festivities celebrating the school's 150th anniversary. Events on Thursday and Friday are for UW students, faculty, and alumni, whereas Saturday is completely open to the public. The festival includes musical performances by The Rapture (DJ Set), The Physics, Witch Gardens, Craft Spells, Grayskul, and more, not to mention a live taping of the show Four Peaks.

ONLY 3 DAYS UNTIL RECORD STORE DAY!

EASY STREET RECORDSEmployees at Seattle's Easy Street Records are counting down the days until Record Store Day on their website (only 3 left) by previewing all the exclusive releases that will be available for one day only, Saturday, April 21. Get out and support your local record stores!

The Future of Film Expo Presented by NFFTY and The Next Fifty is April 27-28, 11am-5pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. NFFTY, SIFF, NW Film Forum, and Evil Slave Productions have put together the "Seattle Film Community Booth Crawl" as a fun way for the local film cast and crew community to experience this event with friends and other filmmakers. All are invited! Check in at 2:00pm, Friday April 27 at the Expo's Xbox360® lounge, socialize with Seattle filmmakers and friends for a bit, then it's off to the booths!

It's been a long time since Seattle Area Filmmakers has held a meet-up and by popular demand - it's back! This meeting will give you the opportunity to sit down with others in your field and talk about your needs as a filmmaker - perhaps your colleagues will have the answers. Everyone will have the opportunity to speak. The meet-up is a discussion forum for filmmakers, not a promotional tool for your film, Kickstarter, or other venture.

WASHINGTON FILMWORKS OPEN FOR BUSINESS, ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

WASHINGTON FILMWORKSWashington Filmworks is officially accepting applications for projects that meet the in-state spending threshold. They are also working hard to implement exciting new aspects of the legislation that recently renewed the Motion Picture Competitiveness Program. In the meantime, they have 3.5 million dollars annually to allocate towards production in Washington State.

Northwest Film Forum's 11th annual gala celebrates the greatness of Black & White, with an evening of drinks, dinner, live auctions, and more. The evening will be emceed by Nancy Guppy, and will feature a new film produced by award-winning local filmmaker Megan Griffiths. Tom Skerritt will give the keynote this year in front of the who's who of Seattle indie film. The event will take place on the evening of Friday, May 4.

JOIN THE CAST OF LOCAL SERIES "THE COLLECTIBLES" AT AVENGERS SCREENINGS NEXT WEEK

If you love superhero characters, comic books and films, mark your calendar now! Join SIFF and The Collectibles Monday April 30 through Thursday May 3 to celebrate the release of director Joss Whedon's The Avengers by revisiting the solo films of these legendary heroes, produced by Marvel Studios. Each film will be introduced by real-life super heroes who are featured in the upcoming film Citizen Heroes and by cast and crew members of The Collectibles. You'll see colorful costumes and hear them talk about their experiences and philosophies.

Folklife recently announced that it will receive funding this year from The Grammy Foundation. The festival will use an award of $4,000 to stabilize, preserve, and catalog thousands of recordings of live performances collected at the Northwest Folklife Festival since 1972. Folklife's collection of audio recordings documents 40 years of the musical and cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest.

HELP "KICKSTART" SEATTLE FILM AND MUSIC PROJECTS

Kickstarter is an online "crowd-funding" resource that helps musicians, filmmakers and producers of artistic projects reach out to friends and fans for financial support. Kickstarter allows artists the opportunity to give back to funders with special rewards, such as an exclusive album pre-release, a producer credit in a film, or even getting to meet the artist in person. Seattle is a hotbed for film and music projects, and you can be a pivotal part of the production process by backing a project and spreading the word. Current Seattle-based Kickstarter projects are listed below, ordered by time remaining. Click on the Kickstarter buttons to check out these local projects and discover even more happening around Seattle.

Have you ever wanted to drive a golf ball on a downtown Seattle street, toward Mount Rainier? If you were at 2nd Avenue & University Street this past Tuesday, you could have done just that. Intuit's GoPayment, along with Los Angeles ad agency RPA, created a driving range to film a commercial for its GoPayment mobile credit card reader, featuring lessons from former PGA tour player Jeff Coston.

"When we approached the City of Seattle and told them we wanted to shut down a city block and put a golf driving range up for a day, they said they were happy to help - and help they did," said Mark Tripp, Director/Producer with RPA. "Thanks to their efforts and the help of Seattle Police and SDOT along with our local crew and vendors, the GoPayment pop-up driving range was a huge success. Thank you, Seattle. We can't wait to shoot up here again."

"Seattle's Office of Economic Development was excited to host this commercial production for Intuit in downtown Seattle. Commercial and corporate work is the cornerstone of our local film industry, accounting for one third of all permitted film projects in Seattle," said Steve Johnson, director of Seattle's Office of Economic Development. "The City's ability to attract and accommodate this type of large scale production helps to grow our local film industry."

The production's Seattle filming highlights Intuit's projects and shows small businesses across the country using the GoPayment card reader. The RPA production has hired over 100 film crew work days, worked with numerous local vendors, and booked 58 hotel room nights for traveling crew.

SHORT FILM FRIDAYS

We believe criticism is a hallmark of a successful film community. It gives us great pleasure to partner with The Stranger to bring you Short Film Fridays, local film reviews to expand the public appeal of our local movie making talent, continually advance the artistic quality of our work, and inspire more film critics to evaluate local film.

The film for this Friday, April 20, will be a short by Charles Mudede called "rhodZi." Edited by Adam Sekular, the current program director at Northwest Film Forum, the short visualizes the Tendai Baba Maraire's music - Maraire is one-half of Shabazz Palaces and a musician trained in Zimbabwe's classical music. Maraire and I come from the same village in Zimbabwe. Enjoy the revolution.

In appreciation and recognition of Seattle's long and illustrious film history, we are proud to partner with Scarecrow Video to bring you weekly reviews of historical Seattle films. Each week we will showcase a new movie, with special emphasis on how these films show Seattle's most filmable locations.

Seat of Empire: Seattle Since 1909 (2009)

Produced through the support of the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 911 Media Arts, Shaun Scott's eccentric documentary is a unique and highly detailed account of Seattle's growth and development. This ambitious video project recounts local history starting with the early 20th Century and attempts to trace connections between the diverse assortment of races and classes involved in the social evolution of Seattle with a close eye on the reasons (mostly military and financial) for the city's industrial growth. Scott's film is basically a one-man show as he acts as Seat of Empire's producer, writer, editor and narrator. A few local scholars (like UW professors Charlotte Cote and Brian Crasserly as well as historylink.org's David Wilma) offer their insights, but it is mostly Scott who eloquently conveys the ramifications of Seattle's urban progress. The young filmmaker does an impressive job weaving together numerous ideas and complex historical threads.

Topics explored in Seat of Empire include brothels, war, the Red Scare, the surreal Denny Regrade project, the influence of immigrants (Filipino and Scandinavian in particular) and Native Americans, politics, Boeing, Japanese Internment Camps, highways, sanitation, public transportation, the WTO protests, and much more. Scott's approach to the subject is loosely connected to 1909's Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition and its metamorphosis into celebrations like the Century 21 Exposition (aka Seattle World's Fair) and Seafair. Along the way we are treated to a rich collection of local images Scott uncovered in places like the Seattle Municipal Archives, the University of Washington Special Collections, and the Museum of History & Industry, all of which showcase the evolving cityscape and changing environment. The director lives at the corner of Ravenna and Roosevelt, mere blocks from Scarecrow Video, and the film includes many neighborhood sights including Café Racer, Half Price Books, Dante's and, most prominently, the extensive mural across the street from the Ravenna QFC.

While thematically similar documentaries like Paul Dorpat's Seattle Chronicle recount events in chronological order without much commentary, the momentum in Scott's film frequently slows to further explore the controversial social and natural impacts of urban development and goes out of his way to emphasize individual and environmental sacrifices made for the perceived idea of a greater good and a bigger city. Because of Scott's frequent tendency to get sidetracked, the 193-minute Seat of Empire simultaneously seems too long and too short, leaving viewers both exhausted and wanting more. But Scott's obsessive and thorough approach is a key part of what makes Seat of Empire a must-see for local history junkies. Fortunately, Scarecrow Video has this film and an impressive collection of other local documentaries in its Seattle Interest section to further satisfy all your historical needs.

Did you know the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce recently featured Sir Mix-A-Lot at a social media conference? In a recent article for Seattle Business Magazine, President of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Maud Daudon explains how diversity, education, and quality of life need to be the priorities of a city with an eye on sustainable development.

What is the role of art in our market-driven society? How do artists support themselves and their work? What motivates them to enter a field that most likely won't lead to financial security? KUOW's Marcie Sillman and a panel of artists and arts advocates, including Seattle songwriter Kaylee Cole, talk about the intersection of art and money, along with a little live music.

Rollo & Grady are an online music publication and music supervision, licensing, and production company. Recently, they've developed a series of posts quoting music supervisors on how they find or discover music to license for movies and TV shows. Future posts will focus on advertising and video games as well as services designed to help you reach music supervisors.

Seattle blues trio Ayron Jones and The Way recently won the Seattle stage of the Hard Rock Rising competition. They're now competing with 86 other acts from around the world in the Hard Rock's Global Battle of the Bands - the winner of which will open for Bruce Springsteen at London's Hyde Park this July.